


titles

by Rosse



Category: Naruto
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Inheritance, clan things, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-14
Updated: 2014-04-14
Packaged: 2018-01-19 10:41:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1466365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosse/pseuds/Rosse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Ino and her father perform one of the oldest shinobi rituals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	titles

"Ino?"

"Yes, daddy?"

"It's time."

She pushes her hair out of her eyes, brushes it into place and ties it back with the ease of routine. Three weeks after her birthday, less than a year after her promotion to chuunin and...

_it's time_

Her dad's words echo in her head as she goes through the routine of getting ready. Hair up, washed, dried, mascara on. She pauses at her wardrobe and pushes away her usual shinobi outfit, selecting a soft, lilac dress instead. It looks like something Hinata would wear, something fit for a princess type, rather than her spirit of fire, but today _it's time_ and it feels right to slip on this dress. She shivers, nothing to do with the cool autumn of Konoha and everything to do with her reflection, and pushes her fringe out of her eye for once, clips it into place and pushes away the nausea that taunts her by bubbling in her stomach.

She looks ready. She looks like the daughter of the head of one of Konoha's oldest clans - older, in fact, than Konoha itself. Her fingers fiddle with her ponytail, pushing and pulling it over her shoulder indecisively, wrapping it up as a bun on top of her head when her dad yells _hurry up already, we need to start!_ and she sighs and leaves it, grabbing her hitae-ate and tying it around her forehead. She never wears this thing any more - no real reason why, other than it doesn't look right with her new outfit and her dad thinks that's so ridiculous of her and he doesn't understand why she won't tie it around her forehead like other shinobi - but today she'll ignore her promise to Sakura and wear it like a shinobi should.

The weight is unfamiliar, heavy against her forehead and yet cooling and calming all at the same time. Her footsteps echo down the stairs and she pulls on a pair of civilian sandals, heels clicking against the floor as her dad taps his foot and opens the door, leading her to the training ground the Yamanaka clan owns. She drinks in every leaf and blade of grass, raking her eyes over the carving of their family's crest on the boulder at the edge of the ground where they stand on paved ground and her dad bows his head, offering prayer to their ancestors. She follows his lead, hair tickling the back of her neck and grounding her to reality.

"Yamanaka Ino," he begins, and Ino straightens, arms at her side, lips pursed together as she ignores the stress tension in her shoulders that always happens whenever she hears her full name. This is not the time to feel stressed, even if it is the perfect time to feel stressed. "You are now a chuunin of Konohagakure. You are the heir to the Yamanaka clan and will guide a new generation of Yamanaka shinobi in serving our village and our family, as well as the Nara and Akimichi clans." The words are older than Konoha, like the clan, modified only once after the clan joined the village, a long recited script given from parent to child as they graduate to the middle rank of Konoha shinobi. A tradition, Ino knows, that impresses the weight of their duty upon them and gives them one chance. "Do you accept this?"

One chance to back out.

But she is _Yamanaka Ino_ , chuunin of Konohagakure, raised by her parents to be a strong leader and a brightly blooming flower.

"I do." The words are simple, the acceptance is natural and she doesn't need to think because she will do all she can to deserve her position within the clan. "As the future head of the Yamanaka clan, I will guide the next generation of our shinobi, serve Konoha and work with the Nara and Akimichi clans like those before me."

The nerves that flitted around her in the run up to this seem to dissolve. She doesn't hesitate, doesn't trip over the words as she recites them like she's been born knowing them.

"Excellent." Her dad smiles brightly, takes her hands and guides her fingertips across the grooves of their crest. "You will do well," he tells her as the chakra stored within glows under their movements and she presses some of her own into it. "There is one more thing," he begins, peeling their hands from the boulder and gripping her hands in his. "As the current head of the Yamanaka clan, I, Yamanaka Inoichi the 15th, bestow the title of Yamanaka Inoichi to you, to be used upon my death. Do you accept?"

"... I do." Ino pushes away the tears that always, always threaten her whenever the idea of death taking her father comes to mind and accepts. Another tradition, one longer than she could ever hope to comprehend. Her father once used the name Yamanaka Inomaru ( _your grandparents were not very inventive_ , he told her as he explained the transference when she was 8).

Yamanaka Inoichi smiles brightly, and Ino feels the weight of fifteen generations upon her shoulders as his hands drop hers. She rolls her shoulders and tilts her head up. She smiles, because the weight doesn't crush her, because her father beams at her with nothing but pride glittering in his eyes.

"Congratulations."

She is Yamanaka Ino, future head of the Yamanaka clan.

She can take on the world.

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking about Inoichi, as you do, and got on to thinking about the leader of the Saika, named Magoichi. Particularly the idea of the name Magoichi being a title. Then this kind of happened.
> 
> Anyway, the Yamanaka are ridiculously out of my wheelhouse when it comes to the kind of fic I feel confident in, so feedback is definitely appreciated with this one!


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